IDF: Air force strikes global jihad terrorist in Gaza

Army claims terrorists were planning attack against Israeli targets along border with Egypt; Shin Bet says target was part of group responsible for June bombing; Netanyahu: Our long arm will reach those who try to harm us.

Body of Eid Hjazi.
(photo credit:REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa)

The Israeli Air Force bombed a motorbike in the Gaza Strip on
Sunday, striking a global jihad terrorist who the Shin Bet (Israel
Security Agency) said had been plotting a terror attack along the
Egyptian border for weeks. Palestinian hospital officials said the
man, Ahmed Ismail, 22, was seriously injured, and his assistant, Eid Okel Hjazi, a 19-year-old from Rafah, was killed.

Security
sources said the terrorist was Ahmed Said Ismail, 22, from the Gaza Strip.
They said he was part of the group that carried out the attack in June that killed an Israeli workman, and was in the midst of planning another attack against Israel along the border.

Security
sources said it was possible the strike thwarted the terror attack. IDF
spokesman Brigadier Gen. Yoav Mordechai said they were in the "advanced
and final stages of launching an attack on the Eilat - Egyptian
border."

Military sources added that global jihad elements were
taking advantage of regional instability, in particular in Egypt and
Syria, to create infrastructure that can be used to attack Israel.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu issued a statement praising the IDF and the Shin Bet for the "precise operation" in Gaza.

"All those who intend to harm us should know our long arm will reach them," he said.

Israel
is increasingly concerned with the presence of global jihad operatives
in the Sinai Peninsula and their ties with Palestinian terrorists in the
Gaza Strip.

Several terror cells are believed to consist of
Palestinians from the Gaza Strip as well as global jihad operatives from
various Arab countries throughout the Middle East.

Last week,
the Counter-Terrorism Bureau urged Israeli tourists in Sinai to return
to Israel immediately because terrorists are planning to abduct Israelis
from the peninsula.